Lakeside Diner

The coffee’s freshly ground, there’s a wide variety of teas and the sticky buns are homemade.

“Eurozone finance ministers have demanded much greater oversight of Greece’s economy in return for a 130bn-euro (£110bn; $170bn) bailout package. In a three-hour conference call on Wednesday, the ministers scrutinised Greece’s planned budget cuts. The single currency bloc praised Greece’s “substantial progress”, but demanded more detail, including a full timeline for implementing the measures.”

“Greek leaders express frustration and anger at the rapid erosion of their country’s sovereignty by German and eurozone leaders, but see no alternative but to accept quasi-colonial control in return for the €130bn (£110bn) rescue package.”

“Prosecutors in Germany have asked the federal parliament to lift President Christian Wulff‘s immunity over an escalating home loan scandal. The prosecutors in Lower Saxony, where Mr Wulff, 52, was previously premier, said there was an “initial suspicion” that he improperly accepted benefits.”

“After several years of scandal in which the Catholic Church has faced allegations of financial impropriety, paedophile priests and rumours of plots to kill the Pope, the Vatican is now facing a new €600m-a-year tax bill as Rome seeks to head off European Commission censure over controversial property tax breaks enjoyed by the Church.”

“The Heartland Institute, the free market thinktank behind efforts to discredit climate change and the teaching of science in schools, launched a new fundraising drive on Thursday after confidential documents were posted online without its consent.
The thinktank launched a new appeal to donors on its website after documents were posted online by Desmogblog, a website monitoring attempts to discredit climate change.”

“The United Nations General Assembly has voted 137 to 12 to approve a non-binding resolution calling for an immediate halt to the Syrian government’s crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule. The vote on Thursday followed another day of violence as opposition activists said at least 22 people had been killed in a continuing military assault on protest hubs.”

“Even in 1952, with the best years of his movie career behind him, Charlie Chaplin had one of the biggest names in Hollywood. But according to newly released MI5 files the authorities were not convinced it was really his: asked by a suspicious US to investigate Chaplin’s early years in England, British intelligence officers were unable to locate the star’s birth records.”